Licensing in Kubernetes

In a Kubernetes deployment, pods are created and destroyed routinely — by scaling, by rollouts, by node maintenance. Licensing is automated so that these normal lifecycle events do not require manual activation, and do not silently consume your activation slots.

The license key

Supply your license key once, as a chart secret:

It is stored in the mdcluster-secrets Secret and visible to every pod in both releases.

Leaving LICENSE_KEY empty is valid. The cluster installs and runs, but MetaDefender Core instances start unlicensed and cannot scan until a license is added through the MetaDefender Cluster Control Center console or API.

Uninstall order matters

When removing the deployment, uninstall instances before services:

Removing services first deletes the MetaDefender Cluster Control Center while MetaDefender Cluster Workers are still running. The MetaDefender Cluster Workers then have nothing to unregister from, and their activations are stranded — recoverable only by contacting support.

Full procedure: Upgrade and uninstall.